Having battled out of control pumpkin vines all summer, I’m glad to report that the last of the pumpkin harvest is finally complete. It rained so much that several rotted on the ground, they’ve been tossed into the compost bin from which I expect next year’s greedy vines will take off. I’d planted an heirloom variety of pie-size pumpkins, not realizing that everywhere there was a leaf there would root a whole new vine. Thus the minimal planting of only 4 vines ended up literally everywhere! It grew over the mints and into the brick pathway. It grew through the roses and tried to cover the grapes. It grew out into the 3rd goal disc golf fairway and down the hill towards the bottomland drop-off. I was literally lopping off new vines daily just to keep some control (and some of my other crops)! Since the compost bin is on the fairway side of the garden, I’m going to go ahead and let the pumpkins have it next year.

Now, processing pumpkins – even pie-size pumpkins of 5 pounds or less – is an arduous task taking lots of time and energy. I spread it out over a couple of weeks, once haviing brought them inside when the temperature dropped to freezing. Once frost is upon them they go fast. Protected from frost in a dry, cool basement or root cellar, they’ll keep for months. So while it’s possible to avoid all that processing by spreadiing it out over the entire winter one pumpkin at a time, pumpkin simply doesn’t last long enough around this homestead to justify not doing it all at once well before the holiday season. I’ve got grandkids who can each eat an entire pie at a single sitting, and grown relatives who fully expect their pumpkin/hickory nut bread along with the fudge and cookies in December (my standard Christmas gifting). One thing you never want to do is find yourself processing a pumpkin at the same time you’re baking cookies/bread and making fudge. You’ll end up not sleeping for days…

Ended up with 12 full quarts of puree, ten of which were bagged and frozen with two for immediate pie-making. This involves cutting, cleaning, peeling and chunking the pumpkin – I like chunks no bigger than 1-2 inches – and saving the seeds. From each of these meaty pumpkins I got about 2/3 usable fruit and 1/3 compost waste, which is a lot better than large modern pumpkin’s yield of half and half.

First, the seeds. squeeze them loose from the stringy pulp, and set aside in a bowl, but don’t wash them. Stir occasionally while processing the rest of the pumpkin to let them dry out a bit. After you’re done using the oven, turn it back to 250º for the seeds. Ad 1 tbsp. vegetable oil per 3 cups of seeds and 1/2 to 1 tsp. of non-iodized salt. You could lessen salt and add pie spices, or chili powder for flavored snacks. Stir well, spread thinly on a baking sheet, and let roast at 250º for an hour. If not good and dry by then, separate and stir, return to the oven for another 15-20 minutes. When dry let them cool and store in zip-lock bag or airtight jar. Eat whole, they crunch easily! High in vitamins E and A, iron, magnesium and trace minerals.

I fill a large oblong cake pan with chunks in a single layer, add 1/4″ of water, cover and bake at 350º for 20 minutes. Puree the soft chunks in the blender (you’ll need to add some water, as little as possible to make it blend well) and pour into quart-size zip-lock freezer bags. These I allow to freeze solid lying flat for a day, and when that’s done they’re the size of a thin box of frozen vegetables and can be stacked or slotted as easily. Some people go ahead and box the bags, but I’m not big on excess packaging. Flat frozen they’re easy enough to find room for.

A quart of puree will make 2 large, deep pumpkin pies or 3 pre-made pie shell size pies. Rather than use the standard pumpkin pie recipe that comes on the back of those cans of pumpkin puree on sale at Thanksgiving in the grocery store, I use a much older ‘traditional’ recipe that my pumpkin pie connoisseur grandson thinks is much better than any other ready-made or home-made from canned pie he’s ever had. Best part is that you don’t have to buy those cans of evaporated milk, which aren’t good for much besides pie or fudge and are always in short supply on a moment’s notice. It’s also very easy…

For a large, deep pie:

2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup brown sugar
3 medium eggs (2 extra large or 4 small)
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. corn starch
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. each allspice, ginger, nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

You can go ahead and use the pre-mixed Pumpkin Pie Spice from the spice aisle, or a new spice mix my grandson picked out and now insists upon – a McCormick “Gourmet Collection” blend called Chinese Five Spice. It contains (in order of appearance per the label) anise, cinnamon, star anise, cloves and ginger. The anise gives a bit of a licorice flavoring, I compensate with a quarter teaspoon of extra ginger. If you’re using a blend, 1.5 to 2 tsps. per pie.

Bake for 15 minutes at 425º, then at 350º for ~45 minutes more or until the pie is firm and a butter knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. I like not using “the usual” spice blend or recommends, as they tend to make your pie taste way too much like everyone else’s. That Chinese blend with anise and some extra ginger (which most people don’t use) is truly different, and vanilla in the mix adds a little something unusual as well. Try it!

In addition to the puree, I also dedicated a whole pumpkin to slices. Got it down to meat, then cut into 1.5 x 1.5 inch slices between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. Froze into four family-size portions without blanching or baking, as you’ll want these semi-dry to make sautees spice slices, a truly great side-dish with any meal, particularly good for holiday meals. The same dish can be made with chunks – and the half to three-quarter inch chunks tend to hold together well – but I just prefer the look and texture of the thin slices instead.

To make, first melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a heavy pan on medium-low heat, add your favorite spices or blend (total of about a tablespoon’s worth) and 1/4 cup brown sugar or maple syrup. Keep on the heat until the butter clarifies and the spices release to the fat. Pour into a bowl and add 1/4 cup lemon juice, mix well and add the pumpkin. Stir often to ensure all the pumpkin gets time in the liquid, let it marinate for a couple of hours.

Strain out the pumpkin and reserve the butter/spice/lemon mixture. Put it into a large frying pan on medium and let the lemon juice reduce out. When down to mostly butter and spice, add 2 more tbsp. of butter. When hot add the pumpkin and let it simmer until the bottom starts to brown, flip-stir with a spatula and continue sauteeing for another few minutes. When done you may wish to put the pan under the broiler long enough to evenly brown the top. Very yummy!

That sautee recipe is also good for winter squash if you get sick of the basic mushy baked stuff. Pumpkins and winter squash are jam packed with vitamins and are one of the most nutritious foods the season has to offer. It’s good to remember that pumpkin can always be substituted for winter squash in cookbook recipes, and visa versa. Try those chunks in a hearty winter soup too, always delicious on cold days.

If readers have any favorite pumpkin/winter squash recipes or preservation hints, do let us know!

At right is the first rush of the bunching onion harvest, prepped for drying in my wonderful (but quite ugly) solar food dryer! These are just the whites – grown from seed – that have been seriously overrun by volunteer grape tomatoes. I decided to let the volunteers grow because the celeriac I’d put where they are all got washed away by torrential rains all spring. Unlike my Abe Lincolns up top, these actually are turning red about a month late. Rain and cool weather all the way through July has kept the Lincolns green-green for way too long, don’t know if they’ll ever ripen.

Seems that’s the story up and down the Eastern Seaboard this year. Cooler than normal, and wet enough to make swamps. I hear New Jersey and other states are having tomato issues, as are all my neighbors, so I’m not alone. Potatoes are taking a big hit as well, rotting in the wet ground or turning black with blight. Both crops may be total commercial losses this year, which means it’s even MORE important that mine come in and get preserved. That’s where my food dryer comes in!

I have so looked forward to not having to buy lids, boil jars, hard-prep and then water-bath this year. We don’t have AC in the cabin, since there’s no point for the perhaps 3 whole weeks of summer when it’s so hot we have to go sit under a tree instead of stay in the house, but it does get sticky and uncomfortable in the extreme when canning, even though I’ve learned to do the water-bath out on the gas grill.

The not pretty but quite serviceable dryer is something I’m more proud of due to NOT having cut off any digits or limbs with power tools than the fact that it works. So far I’ve been drying apples as they fall (Granny Smith and Macintosh) from what were supposed to be 10-foot tall single-limb “columnars” that got planted too deep and are now 20 feet tall and multi-limbed. Can’t get at the fruit with the ladder because most is too high, so must wait until they fall. They’re right outside the front porch, so I check a couple of times a day. Promptly cut off the bruised part from falling, core, peel and slice, dip in lemon juice (helps preserve color) and dry. Takes a day of full sun, or two of intermittent. Which is the story of the summer, and just my luck since I made a solar dryer. It just HAD to be a cool, wet, cloudy year. So far I’ve three quarts of dried apples and one of peels, which I’m going to powder and make applesauce, then dry into leathers strips.

So between apple batches (still waiting for ‘maters and pears, eggplant, leeks, peppers and pumpkins), I can dry the onions. The colander you see in the pic is full of cut greens. The very best thing about drying instead of canning is that nothing much goes to waste. I’ll cut and dry all the good onion greens crisp, jar them for now, then when I’m putting together powder mixtures for, say, veggie bullion or instant V-8 or potato soup or making salts and/or salt-free mixtures, I’ll blender-ize them into powder. Rather than just tossing them into the compost as usual, where they either rot or get eaten by da bear.

Greens shouldn’t take more than a day to dry, I’ll know by this evening because this is one of our rare full-sun days. If they aren’t quite dry by sundown, I’ll retrieve them and finish in the oven at 150º, which I’ve found works quite well. Dried food needs to be fully dried hard to store, as moisture will cause mold and rot. Half-dry stuff needs to go into freezer bags and frozen. The dry-dry will keep for years!

Figure I’ll half the grape tomatoes and dry those too, sort of tomato-raisins that can be added to all sorts of stuff, including a sourdough veggie-loaf I’m planning. The herbs (basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, tarragon, parsley, etc.) are doing great this year, so I’ll have plenty to add. Will let you know how that turns out! Harvested the bulb onions a couple of weeks ago, put some into storage and will slice the rest to dry and crumble into “instant onions” to add to soups and stews during the winter.

Figure after tomatoes (or during) I’ll dry sliced ‘taters too. Make scallop mixture and bottle that all up too. Have taken to saving coffee tins as well as miscellaneous jars and lids, since dry food only needs an airtight container stored in a dark cabinet, so those will hold a lot.

The very best thing about my summer project – the solar dryer – is that I’ll be able to put up most of the food grown, use almost all of it, and have a lot of good organic food on hand all winter. So much usually goes to waste! Now I’m planning a drying rack to be suspended above the wood stove, since judging by weather so far this year it’ll be getting cold enough for a fire by late September, the solar dryer’s not that big, and I’ve fall crops that should also be dried.

Stay tuned for developments on that end, and Happy Harvest!

Acknowledging that we homesteaders have been ahead of the curve for quite awhile on how to become ever more self-sufficient, the current worldwide economic crisis – which threatens to last for years – no doubt has us expanding our means of producing and preserving food crops this year. On my homestead a good deal of work is going into expanding the amount of acreage we’ve planted in truck crops, begun experimenting with staples like hard red winter wheat and grain amaranth, and doubling the actual plantings of favorites like potatoes and corn that have traditionally been so cheap to buy that we didn’t depend upon our own.

On the preservation front, I’ve embraced a project for this season that should pay for itself many times over during the years it will be in use. It’s a solar food dryer, with which I’m hoping to cut seriously into the energy usage (and expense) of regular canning and freezing as the crops come in. This will not only help keep our not air conditioned cabin cooler during the hot August tomato harvest/canning frenzy, it should also cut way down on waste of perfectly good food from the land that comes in piecemeal, is less-than-perfect, and cannot be immediately consumed. This means I can preserve much more of the apple and pear crops, can preserve the persimmon crop that just started producing last fall, can dry sweet corn, squash and even dark green leafies for long-term storage while preserving much more of their nutritional goodness as well as flavor.

We’re still collecting the materials for this project, and I’ll be taking pictures of every step of building and operation for updates through the season. The basic design of the dryer can be found at GeoPathfinder. Though I’ll be using polypropylene screen instead of stainless steel, which is very expensive and difficult to find in small lots. I also like the idea of making several box-screens that can be loaded in stages, because then I can build a rack above the wood stove to continue drying activities into late September and October with fruit leathers from the apples, pears and grapes. Or in the early spring to dry cherries, which always ripen weeks before we’re done heating the cabin.

Another design issue for this NC mountain climate will have to be an even lifting of the glass and shield assembly, as opposed to simply hinging it and propping it open. That’s going to cause seriously uneven heating in our strong summer sun, which is too strong to keep from baking the food with the top closed. That also means I’ll need another screen to go over the food trays to keep insects off. I figure a scissor-riser type device at all four corners to lift the glass/shield assembly straight up. For the extra bug screen I’m figuring a standard retracting window shade device that I can pull across and secure.

I’ve also ordered Mary Bell’s book Food Drying with an Attitude, which should be here before the end of the week. We don’t do jerky (vegetarians), but I’m quite curious about drying dark green leafies which usually end up in the compost pile because we can’t eat them fast enough and I hate canned greens. I figure if they crumble badly I can save the powder to add to soups and stews all winter, maybe mix with other broken/crumbled dried produce to make a jar of veggie bullion. Am growing sweet yellow, storage white and big red onions this season, hope they do better than usual. Celeriac is also something I want to grow a lot of, and now I’ll be able to dry the stalks and leaves to add to the bullion jar. The roots don’t need preserving, they’ll keep just fine in the root cellar all winter.

Stay tuned for construction updates and the results of my experiments in food drying! More to come soon…

The fruit crops were abundant this year due to lack of a hard late freeze as well as due to a killing late freeze last year that killed off the apple, pear and cherry crops altogether and reduced the grape harvest by at least half. The trees and vines think they’re dying after such a bad year, so will produce like crazy the next year. Yet oddly enough, there are no acorns or hickory nuts or wild walnuts on the homestead this year. Either they’re all getting eaten as fast as they fall by deer, or there just aren’t any. So again this year I’ll have to gather my acorns a bit south at my sister’s place on the lake.

Cherries are the first to ripen in early June. My family eagerly looks forward to them and I’ve never had to try and preserve – they get eaten just as fast as I can gather. Then comes the apples in August. This year the golden delicious were fat and happy, enough to turn into pie and apple butter in addition to being eaten regularly fresh off the tree. The pears fall in September and there were plenty this year to process. These are hard cinnamon pears, not great to eat straight because they’re so tough even after sitting for a few days, so I make pear butter that needs very little sugar and is great on toast or mixed into hot oatmeal or cream of wheat.

The grape harvest starts with concords in early September and then muscodines later in the month. With those, I thought the fruit harvest was done for the year when I happened to discover now in mid-October a lone American persimmon tree [Diospyros virginiana] in the back corner of the yard behind the shed that is absolutely loaded. We’ve lived here 16 years and I never saw fruit on this 40-foot tall tree, so I guess it must have reacted to last year’s late freeze just like the other fruit trees did. Hmmm… what to do with persimmons?

These persimmons are a pretty golden with patches of red, about an inch or two across. To eat fresh you should wait until they fall and are quite soft and pulpy, picked they are just a bit unripe and tart. I quartered and seeded some of those and packed them into a jar with vodka. These will make tasty tidbits during the holidays. The rest, which I’m gathering on a sheet tied around the trunk and staked up off the ground to catch the falling ripe fruit, I will dry for use in my holiday fruitcakes and fruitcake cookies.

Dried persimmons are a little softer and sweeter than dried dates, but with similar consistency. Traditionally persimmons in Asia (some big enough to weigh a pound) are halved and dried for three weeks in the sun, then finished off in low ovens. I will use the low oven method exclusively, to avoid the “no-seeum” issue (tiny gnats that manage to come right through screens and mesh). I haven’t had any real experience with persimmons – this is the first time I’ve had them readily available – so I’ll let my readers know if they turn out well enough to use in baking. They sure taste good, so the trick will probably be to keep the family from eating too many at one sitting.

That can be an issue, I’ve learned from my researches on the internet, because of their tendency to induce diarrhea if you aren’t careful. The good news is that persimmons are high in vitamin c, packed with riboflavin (vitamin B2), and contain tannins as well as anti-tumor compounds and phytonutrients. They can be as good of antioxidants as dark grapes, and in traditional Chinese medicine the fruit is used to regulate the ch’i – the vital power. Below are some links to information about persimmons for those interested or who find that they too host a tree or few on their property.

Wikipedia: Persimmon
Persimmon – Diospyros, Ebenaceae
Persimmon General Crop Information

The long summer drought finally ended last week with a full 12 inches from tropical storm Fay’s leftovers that sat stubbornly right overhead for three days. Pears are falling fast from the granny tree next to the driveway, being mashed into pulp every time a vehicle comes or goes and smelling so sweet it’s drawing flocks of turkeys and herds of deer. The fruit is hard and will dent the car if we park there, but I’ve a plastic helmet to protect my head for gathering. Which I’ve just gotta get busy doing before the bears show up.

Between the Granny pear and the house are the grapes, concords and muscadines quickly ripening but not quite sweet enough yet to justify harvest. That will come in mid-September, I’ll make jam, compote and wine (usually ends up as wine vinegar) this year, the basalmic from last year’s harvest is still aging.

Between the grapes bordering the garden and the house are the apples. The MacIntosh has a bad case of fire blight, the crop’s a total loss. Must spray it this fall, and I’ll hit its buddy the Golden Delicious at the same time even though it’s faring better. Those apples are thick and fat, very sweet and will make excellent sauce. I can’t get into the tree to pick, so must salvage off the ground. If half is unbruised it’s worth saving.

This is a very good year for fruit and nuts. We got nothing last year due to a late freeze, which nixed the mast crop completely. I had to go south to harvest acorns, walnuts and hickory nuts because there were none here. That apparently made this year’s crop push extra hard for survival, so there’s twice as much of everything!

Preservation of fruit like apples and pears is pretty easy. I core, peel and slice the fruit, then boil it with some spice (usually cinnamon), some lemon juice to preserve color and brown sugar, until they’re soft. To make butters you just blend up the cooked soft fruit, put it into pint-size sterile jars and water bath it for about 45 minutes. I’ll freeze some of the apples for pie filling. Just put the slices in a bowl with lemon juice while you’re working, then drain, put into freezer bags and put ‘em away. They’re good in smoothies straight out of the bag. It’s easier to make the filling when you make the pie than to make actual pie filling in quart-size jars and can them.

Both butters and slices (as well as chunks that break) are very good sweeteners to add to cakes and cookies during the late fall and winter. I always bake up a storm during the holidays and send out tins full to friends and relatives. I’ve still got a lot of frozen bananas from summer sales too, so this year some of that will be added to pumpkin breads and such.

A homestead is a lot of work, but it’s a satisfying life. Traditionally fruit was in short supply in the cold months, and getting enough vitamin C was a serious issue. We can always savor our mint and rose hip teas for that boost, but preserving the fruit crop is a lot better than buying expensive foreign fruit from the grocery in the winter, especially in these days of e.coli contamination the FDA can never manage to track down. Plus, even if you hate fruitcake, some nice applesauce cookies, apple turnovers, pears on the side for dinner and such are tasty ways to get your RDAs and fill your tummy with goodness at the same time.

So, happy harvest, homesteaders! If you’ve favorite recipes for your fruit preservation, please add them in the comments.

Now that I’m over that nasty bout with salmonella-laced foreign tomatoes, I must say I’m delighted that my own heirlooms are finally turning red in the garden, providing the sweetest, meatiest, most desirable fruit/veggie on the planet. Since the FDA rescinded its warnings due to the sudden availability all over America of actual locally-grown tomatoes, we can talk about what to do with all that juicy incoming bounty.

Processing tomatoes for preservation (or just for making dinner) is a messy job. That’s why I planted varieties this year that are known more for their usable inner ‘meat’ than their juice and seeds. Plus it’s been a bit dry this season, so too much water definitely isn’t their issue. When it comes time to do the processing, you may wish to do what I do and use the back deck grill instead of the kitchen stove to boil those large amounts of water. No air conditioning here, it’s usually not necessary and is a total waste of ‘trons. But when you’ve got big pots of water boiling in the kitchen for long periods of time, even the most mellow of summer mountain weather can quickly become unbearable.

Here are the basic prep steps for processing fresh tomatoes:

1. Wash all your tomatoes in running cold water. Even if you never use pesticides or pepper spray on them, washing is always a good idea (unless you’re eating tomatoes while out there picking them).

2. Put tomatoes in rapidly boiling water for 10-20 seconds, until you see the skin split. Remove quickly and put them in cold water (I fill up the sink with cold water ahead of time). This stops the cooking and further loosens the skins.

3. Cut the parboiled tomatoes in half and cut out the stem-end core, pull off the skins. Then quarter, squeeze out the seeds, seed membranes and juice into a compost container or bowl (from which you can later extract seeds to save and juice to drink).

4. Put the peeled and seeded tomato quarters (or pieces, if you chop further) into a colander or sieve to drain more moisture. I usually sprinkle salt on them at this point, it helps to get the moisture out.

That’s it. From there, once the tomato pieces are well drained, you can put them into freezer bags to freeze, you can dry (in dehydrator or in the sun), you can go ahead and cook up some sauce to can or freeze, or you can simply can them by packing jars, attaching new lids and putting them into a rapid water-bath boil (over the top of lids) for a full 20 minutes. Don’t forget to check your seals before putting them away.

Kitchen Gardeners International: Canning Tomatoes

Or you can use them fresh for my absolutely favorite summertime tomato dish: Good Ol’ ‘Mater Pie. Here’s the Super-Secret Recipe:

Summer Fresh Tomato Pie

6 cups processed fresh tomatoes, slightly salted and well drained
1 cup mayonnaise
1.5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (or mixed Italian pizza cheese)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Mix tomatoes, mayonnaise and basil in a bowl. Layer one large (or two small) pie crusts with mixture and cheese, ending with cheese on top. Cover with top pie crust, seal edges and cut slits to let steam escape. Bake until crust is golden brown, about 35-40 minutes in a 350º oven.

‘Mater pie can be served hot, but my family loves it even better after it’s been refrigerated. One of the best breakfast delights since watermelon! And speaking of watermelon, mine are starting to fruit at the low end of the garden. Already made 5 quarts of pickles from the first rush of cukes, more on the way. Corn is starting to tassle too, summer squash and okra and new potatoes are in plentiful supply.

It’s times like these that dedicated homesteaders love most, when all that hard work in the garden when it was still cold and muddy pays off with the most delicious of foods. Foods that don’t come complete with pesticide residues or gnarly bacterial poisons that can do great harm to human beings.

I have no nut trees on my property other than the oaks from which I get acorns in the fall, and hickory nuts that you need a hammer and rock to crack. But my son-in-law has four walnut trees on his property, from which I collect sacks of walnuts both in the summer (when they’re green) and in the fall (after they’ve fallen).

So in case you’ve a source for green walnuts, I thought I’d offer a recipe for walnut ketchup that can’t be beat!

Walnut Ketchup
About 100 immature walnuts, shelled and crushed
2 quarts cider or malt vinegar
1/2 cup kosher (non-iodized) salt (can substitute 2/3 cup dark soy sauce)

Put these ingredients into a crock and cover, stir it daily for 8 days. Sieve out the liquid and put into a large pot with…

1/4 cup blackstrap molassas
1/2 cup fresh grated horseradish
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 clove chopped garlic (or more if you love garlic as much as my family does)
1/2 tsp. each mace, ginger, nutmeg, whole cloves, freshly ground peppercorns

Cover pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 45 minutes. Cool and process in a food processor or blender until smooth. Ladle into clean pint jars and process 10 minutes in a water bath with new lids. Makes about 3.5 quarts. This ketchup can substitute for Worcestershire sauce in any recipe calling for that condiment, or can be used AS such a sauce straight on steaks if you eat steaks.

Basic [Secret] BBQ Sauce
1 white onion, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup home made sweet ketchup
1/4 cup home made walnut ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce)
1.5 cups cider vinegar (or 5% wine vinegar)
1/3 cup local raw honey (or blackstrap molassas)
1 tbsp. chile powder
1 tsp. chipotle pieces or powder
2 tbsp. virgin olive oil

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium, add onions and garlic. Cook until onions are clear, add ketchups, vinegar, chile powder/pieces. Reduce heat and simmer slowly until the sauce has thickened slightly (about 20-30 minutes). Process in blender or food processor until smooth. Ladle into clean pint jars, adjust caps and can in water bath for 10 full minutes.

This sauce can benefit (depending on what you’re cooking) from a bit of white wine, a little extra chipotle or a dollop of your home made spicy mustard. Thinning with wine, bourbon, or balsamic vinegar turns it into an excellent marinade. For extra sweetness to complement the tart, try adding your favorite chutney, fruit preserves or jam, a cup of home made salsa, a shot of brandy or some extra spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves), what sounds good to you? You can easily turn the sauce into something more-than special by putting a few tablespoons into a saucepan and adding your thinner (basalmic or wine), then slowly heating to make a gravy (with the usual flour and milk). Toss with pasta or serve over baked chicken, or create your own dish!

Everybody’s tastes are different, and different recipes call for different sauces (especially for great barbeque cooks!). So you might want to make the basic, then reserve some for your exotic additions, then can them in the water bath together. Be sure to label your jars carefully so you’ll be able to find what you need quickly.

Oh… and be sure to keep your recipe in a wall safe, nothing’s more impressive to guests (or to give as gifts) as your very own Super-Secret Barbeque Sauce!

Mustard, for instance. Like most people around here, my garden grows great mustard. As a weed, not a crop. When the flowers are done and seed pods are set (late April or early May), I pull up the whole plant prior to preparing the bed for whatever I’m planting there. I put them head-first into brown paper bags, tie around the roots and hang upside down in the shed to dry. Sure enough a couple of weeks later I rub the seeds free and sift them through a sieve – the seeds are small. I grind those in my little Braun coffee grinder. That doesn’t exactly powder them, but it does get them grainy. If you like your mustard smooth, you can mortar-and-pestle them

I like fresh ground peppercorns (red, white and black) some cinnamon and bay leaf, but anise, fennel, caraway or dill seeds can also be used to flavor up a good mustard. If you’ve got half a cup of ground mustard seed, simmer all your other spices in a half cup of water, covered, for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add the mustard. Replace cover and steep for an hour. When that’s done, blend the whole concoction until smooth. If it’s too thick add a little cider or wine vinegar to thin. Put this into sterile small jelly jars. Keep refrigerated or water-bath can it with new lids for cabinet storage.

You can use pickling spices in mustard, or anything your family likes a lot. Honey is good as well if you like a sweetish taste, and white wine is good as well.

Ketchup is so amazingly wonderful when it’s home made that you’ll never go back to store-bought again once you’ve got the knack (and chosen your favorites). Home made ketchup uses up a lot of tomatoes, so you may want to go ahead and buy a couple of pecks at the local farmer’s market (natural/organic section) when they’re abundant and cheap, saving your own crop for salsas, ‘mater pie, slicers, salads and sauces.

Rule of thumb is that a half-bushel of tomatoes makes 1 gallon of ketchup (you can make different kinds, and some for your friends!). Ketchup requires lots of vinegar, so don’t judge taste by the smell when you’re cooking it – it should be aged at least a couple of weeks, at which point the true taste will amaze you. The project is a big one, so pick a day and have everything ready. For such projects I fire up the backyard grill. I can boil water and cook sauce all day and not heat up the house, fuel is cheaper than electricity, and I can sit in the shade and read a good book during lulls.

They probably don’t sell tomatoes by the peck at your farmer’s market, but by the basket – a wooden basket with handle, holds ~12-14 pounds of tomatoes. This will work out to something like 40-45 tomatoes, depending on size. You’ll want two of these. Put your water bath canner on the grill and fill it half full of water, bring that to a roiling boil. Use this to parboil the tomatoes until the skin splits, dip them out and put into a 5-gallon bucket of cold water. Have an empty bucket on hand for the cleanings, which will go into the compost pile (save seeds if you’ve grown heirlooms!) or to make juice when you’re done.

Peel, core and seed the tomatoes, roughly chop and put into a large pot. This project takes awhile, don’t hurry. You can cook down a peck at a time on the grill at a slow boil, so that you end up with 2 quarts.

Sweet Ketchup
2 quarts thick tomato sauce
2 ripe sweet red peppers, finely chopped
1 sweet green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 medium sweet onions, finely chopped
2 cups local honey (or brown sugar)
3 tablespoons salt
3 cups apple cider vinegar

In a cheescloth bag:
1 stick cinnamon, broken
1.5 tsp. allspice
1.5 tsp. whole cloves

Simmer everything except the vinegar in a large pot, stirring often, 2-4 hours until thick. Add vinegar and cook for 15 minutes longer. Remove spice bag and ladle sauce into clean pint canning jars (~5 jars). Process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Spicy Ketchup
2 quarts thick tomato sauce
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp. powdered allspice
1 tsp. ground pepper
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 minced red pepper
Couple dashes hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Simmer uncovered until thick, about 3 hours. Ladle into pint canning jars (3-4 jars) and process in water bath for 10 minutes.

In further posts I’ll offer some great recipes for mayonnaise, salsas, pesto, hot pepper sauce, barbeque sauce and horseradish. By the 4th of July, picnics could be spectacular!

A Happy Solar Homestead

When we discuss alternative energy strategies, any able homesteader is going to be concerned with building and various secondary retrofits to homes, barns and outbuildings. The more energy the homestead can gain passively – or conserve passively – the less energy will be required to supplement.

In these strategies 11-15 of the series, we’ll look at some of the ways a homesteader can use smart, green building practices and technologies to lessen their dependence on supplied energy sources.

Part 3: Building Technologies & Alternatives

11. Passive Solar Siting and Construction

Whether you’re building a new house or barn, or simply retrofitting to what’s already there, strategies for making the most of nature where you live will help to save on energy inputs.

To make the most of passive solar, consider how much direct sunlight falls on your homesite throughout the year. If you get ample sun (have a site that has an ample southerly exposure), plan accordingly. Big windows (with no significant overhang) can provide direct solar heating in the winter. Dark stain or paint on the south wall will also absorb heat from the sun. Conversely, walls that are mostly or entirely shaded during the day, plus the north wall, should have as few windows as is reasonable.

Limit heat gain in summer by planting deciduous trees (apples are good) fairly close. Also bear in mind that any south-facing roof is a good place to put solar panels or solar collectors for hot water (or both). If you do install these, you’ll want retractible awnings for your south windows because you don’t want any summer shade trees interfering.

Green Building Basics

12. Earth-Sheltered Building

A home sheltered on 2 or 3 sides with the earth itself will maintain a much steadier temperature all year round. It will be warmer in winter (and hold heat better), cooler in summer than a fully above-ground dwelling. The same is true for barns if your homestead includes livestock, as well as for spring houses and/or root cellars.

There are now “sod roof” designs too, though these also require clever planning. Plus, if you’re growing grass or wildflowers on the roof, you won’t have it available for solar collectors. The plus again is insulation as well as heating/cooling supplied by the earth and plants themselves. Because our property slopes steeply to a side-ridge next to the cabin I’ve been considering a cute little Hobbit-House dug right into it – round door and all. If I ever get a backhoe, that’s just what I’ll do. Until then, I’ll be content that the first floor is earth sheltered on 3 sides. Works great.

Earth Sheltering

New Green Building Technology: Dirt Floors

13. Supplemental Heating and Cooling

Depending on where your homestead is located in this big country, your needs for heat and cooling will be tied directly to your microclimate. If you live in a climate that requires supplemental cooling in summer (and can’t earth-berm), a water cooling system is probably the most energy efficient bet. Moving air is always good, window and attic fans work well. You can always wet your tee-shirt and sit next to the fan, be cooled in no time! Or take some time off and go soak in the cold creek.

For supplemental heat a good size homestead should be able to use wood – a renewable resource. Simply maintaining a sizeable stand of forest can supply a lot of wood from thinned saplings, standing dead and windfall (you’ll want to keep your forested acreage well anyway to diminish chance of fire). If your woods are limited be sure to replant what you take, and choose fast growing hardwoods (like tulip poplar or locust) instead of evergreen conifers (soft woods like pine and fir).

Wood Heat Stoves & Solar

Central Boiler: Outdoor Furnace

14. Recycle All the Building Materials You Can

When building or adding on (or even doing some serious remodeling) always try to get recycled building materials if you can. There are businesses in almost every good-size town/city that specialize in recycled materials – used bricks and cinder blocks, poles and logs from old houses and barns, hardwood floors, windows, doors, ceramic tile, barn and house sidings, bathroom and kitchen fixtures and plumbing, even cool interior touches like railings and finials and moldings and such. Not only do these generally cost much less than new, sometimes an able homesteader can get great materials for free by offering to tear down an old barn or dwelling and salvage what he can.

Neighbors can often help supply materials as well, so get to know them. We’ve picked up many a brick, cinder block, window, door and other supplies from people who have been collecting for years, and are trying to make room for the new “free stuff” they’re collecting. Every recycled item you use to improve your homestead is energy NOT wasted by anybody else to produce new. It’s also money saved.

ReNew Building Materials & Salvage

15. Long Term Food Storage

While home food preservation (canning, drying, freezing) is its own separate series, the wise homesteader will want to make best use of strategies for long-term food storage that don’t require extra energy inputs. One of the best strategies for long-term food storage makes double use of a spring house/root cellar combination. Even if you have a well for house water, you can use this strategy at your creek or any natural springs on the property.

Flowing water – particularly spring-fed or ground water – tends to be cold and stay within a small temperature range year round. Our spring house (10×10 feet square) was dug into the mountainside at creek level many years before we moved here. There is a concrete plastered cinder block trough along the back wall, parallel to the hillside. A pipe coming through at one end brings spring water (~40º all the time) into the trough steadily. The trough has an overflow pipe on the other side that drains it back to the creek. This cold water also moderates the temperature in the space, and I’m fond of storing melons in the trough during the summer so they’re always cold but take up no room in the house fridge.

Any root vegetables (rutabega, beets, parsley root, celeriac, potatoes, turnips, onions, carrots), winter squash, pumpkins and fruit like apples and pears can be stored in this cellar in straw (so they don’t touch directly) for up to 9 months without significant spoilage and no freeze damage. I have seen in-ground root cellar/spring houses of this design in Oklahoma that work every bit as well as mine. Also have seen this design used in a house cellar food storage area in Pennsylvania, built before there was refrigeration and with a trough the entire width of the farmhouse that served refrigeration needs very well.

Peace and Carrots: Root Cellar

Walton: The Root Cellar Home Page

In part 4 of this series – items 16-20 – we’ll look again at energy systems for producing electricity or otherwise readily usable juice, this time at hybrid systems that combine several strategies at the same time to get the most usable power from the most readily available sources. Do stay tuned!

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Electrical Generation
Part 2: Transportation and Motorized Equipment
Part 3: Building Technologies & Direct Alternatives
Part 4: Hybrid Energy Systems
Part 5: Collective Strategies for Communities